Information compiled
by Carol Ann McCormick, September 2007
The University of North Carolina Herbarium
has catalogued approximately a dozen plants collected by F. E.
McDonald. All were collected in Illinois. As databasing of the
collection continues, more specimens collected by him may be found.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is from Chase, Virginius
H. (1920) Francis Eugene M'Donald. Rhodora 22 (260): pages unknown.
FRANCIS EUGENE MCDONALD was
born at Wyanet, Illinois, Feb. 23, 1860. The family moved to Peoria
in his childhood and he received his education in that town. After
completeing his school days, F.E. McDonald took up the study of
law under Judge Bigelow. He stood third in a class of twenty-six
and was admitted to the bar, January 8, 1883. He had taken the
law course because his mother wished it, but controversies and
quarrels were so absolutely contrary to his nature that he never
could bring himself to practice his profession.
On account of the illness of his
father, who was in the railway mail service, he took his place
for some months as railway mail clerk between Galva and Quincy,
Ill., and in 1884 was given a regualr appointment between Rock
Island, Ill., and St. Louis, Mo., which he held up to the time
of his death.
As a child he greatly
admired a little "herbarium" prepared by his mother
in her school days, but just how great his admiration for it was
she never realized until she thoughtlesly gave it away. Before
many years he began to collect and prepare herbarium specimens
for himself, and by the time he was married, Sept. 25, 1890, to
Miss Ida Trine of Chicago, he had a large local collection. He
added to this by exchange with all the best collectors in the
country, until at the time he sold it to the University of Illinois,
about 10 years ago, it numbered over ten thousand specimens.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following excerpt is
from p. 390 of Mohlenbrock, Robert
H. (1982) Illinois Solanaceae in the Missouri Botanical Garden
Herbarium and Biographical Sketches of Some Collectors. Annals
of the Missouri Botanical Garden 69(2): 382-392.
FRANCIS EUGENE MCDONALD (1860 - 1920), born in Wyanet,
Illinois, moved at an early age to Peoria where he resided for
the remainder of his life. Although he studied law and was admitted
to the bar on January 8, 1883, he was not excited about the legal
profession. When his father became ill, McDonald took his place
as a railway mail clerk, a position which became permanent in
1884 and which he held until his death. McDonald collected plants
as a hobby, mostly in the Peoria area.
